Mainstream FARC rebels reject call to arms
The logo on ex-FARC combatant Davinson Lopez’s tee-shirt says it all, and it’s a message Colombians desperately want to hear: “Our only weapon is peace.”
A week ago several of the most prominent leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia sent a chill through this conflict-weary country when they emerged briefly from hiding to declare a return to arms.
Ivan Marquez, FARC’s top negotiator for the 2016 peace agreement, said the government had reneged on key components of the deal and the time had come “for a new stage of fighting.”
But the majority of combatants who disarmed following the deal, and settled in normalization zones like this one in the green hills of Icononzo, say they are sticking with the peace process -- despite perceptions that the government lacks the will to implement it fully.
Lopez admits Marquez’s call knocked him back on his heels.
“No one expected this situation, let alone from Comrade Ivan Marquez,” he said. “He was very committed to the process, because he was the one who signed it.”
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